DHS investigating employee running racist website

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Homeland Security employee is the operator of a racist website predicting and advocating a race war, a department official said Thursday.

Ayo Kimathi, who is an acquisitions officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, operates the site, War on the Horizon, which includes descriptions of an "unavoidable, inevitable clash with the white race." Kimathi is black.

The DHS official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

While many of the postings on Kimathi's site are inflammatory, it was not immediately clear whether they cross the legal threshold into unprotected hate speech, and the posts may not violate DHS policies if he does not curate the website at work or espouse the ideologies in the office.

Kimathi, who identifies himself online using a pseudonym, did not respond to phone calls and emails from The Associated Press to his home and office. According to the ICE acquisitions website, Kimathi is a small business specialist responsible for purchasing handcuffs, guns and other law enforcement equipment and services.

In a brief written statement, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the agency "does not condone any type of hateful rhetoric or advocacy of violence of any kind against anyone. Every ICE employee is held to the highest standard of professional and ethical conduct. Accusations of misconduct are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, first reported on Kimathi on Wednesday.

The opening page of Kimathi's website describes the group as "a Haitianist organization created for the purpose of preparing black people worldwide for an unavoidable, inevitable clash with the white race. Whites around the world are absolutely determined to exterminate Afrikan (sic) people in all corners of the Earth."

"Warfare is eminent, and in order for black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of whites — more than our Christian hearts can possibly count," reads a 2010 post titled "Black Ethnic Cleansing: An Idea Whose Time Has Come." ''Waging war against whites is at the core of the Afrikan warrior's spirit. It's the flame that drives our willingness to fight in the face of certain defeat and/or death."

The website criticizes whites, gays and blacks who integrate with whites and those of mixed race. Many of the postings are signed with the phrase, "We'll see you on the battlefield."